taking the possibility of confusing copyright and trademark aside, this brings up a few interesting points: if you do a youtube search for sign spinners, some of what these guys are doing are pretty cool, and yes different then your typical sign holders. Might they be covered under the same protections dancers and…cheerleaders/dance squads/baton twirlers get for their moves? I’d say its reasonable. However, I’d like to see a high school cheerleading squad sue AArrow for infringement, since I;ve seen many of these exact same moves performed during half time shows!!!! also, that might qualify as prior art.
The second issue is that if an employee of Aarrow comes up with his own routine, and aarrow “IP’s” it, then the employee can never perform that same “trick” if he goes to work for another sign company, since the creation of an employee as part of his job belongs to an employeer. Maybe these spinners will form a union and add their own protections to future sign spinning employment contracts?

I’m an Accounts Manager for AArrow. You all need to get your heads straight. This IS a competitive business. There are companies in CA that claim to have started from scratch with their own innovative idea – OUR innovative idea. I’m sure no one will get sued for accidentally performing one of our moves…but those who try to steal our work deserve to be sued into oblivion. First off, if you think that this is ridiculous, you haven’t seen this craft at its height. There is a great deal of skill, talent, and practice that goes into perfecting these tricks, not to mention the numerous injuries one sustains until acheiving success. Many of our tricks are so complicated that anyone trying to steal them wouldn’t be able to – but since we DO have an exclusive training and trick system, it’s important to ensure that no one leaves our company and takes our moves with them. If you were a software engineer and you wrote an amazing line of code, trained your coworkers on how to include that line in their own programs, and then watched as they took YOUR code to other companies, shouldn’t you be entitled to legal protection?

I will enjoy seeing just how many different lawsuits come about regarding this issue, since I’m holding patents on all possible ways to sue. Tons of money will thus roll my way, but then I’ll lose all of it to some other time-blessed brainiac who holds patents on ways to collect money.

Jeez bruno, get a life. Some things are more important than being the one to say “I came up with that”. I sure don’t remember streetcorner breakdancers suing each other over their “unique” moves. By your logic, doesn’t the very first homeless person who came up with the ubiquitous “will work for food” sign deserve some kind of credit?

Your problem relates to being greedy and selfish, not artsy or innovative. Have a great day. 🙂

Its as simple as this: AArrow Sign Spinning is a new extreme sport that interlocks street performing with advertising.

We’re not trying to sue ANYONE. We’re simply saying this, “Look, We (AArrow) have taken this (form of outdoor advertising) to a whole new level. A level that cannot be compared. We are the elite of the elite when it comes to “Sign Spinning”. like the bilderberg group (if you dont know who they are, then keep drinking your flouride water.)

Its like this:
In martial arts you have various movements and techniques that clarify a specific type of martial art. for example, if you watch any fight or mma videos and you yourself know certain types of martial arts, then you yourself can say, “hey he just did a jump hook kick.” but, To the untrained eye, noone knows wtf that is. however, you do because you have the experience to know exactly what it is. maybe you took tae kwon do and thats why you know… Well sign spinning is exactly like a martial art in the sense that if you dont do it or study it, then you wont know wtf is going on.

AArrow just wants to copyright its specific style of sign spinning.

for this reason you wont see knockoff companies doing our stylistic moves. they’ll have to make up their own stuff. you catch me?

you dont see kung fu experts copyrighting a kick, no. but what you so see is a clear definition of that kicks origin. the style, the technique, and the person/s responsible for it.

We (AArrow) know that people are going to try to copy us, we dont mind, we’re just clarifying Our own style of Sign Spinning,

We are simply trying to protect what we do.

Its like Velcro man, it was actually micro loop/hook technology that makes it what it is. Who cares, because when you buy Velcro your paying for a marketed brand that secured and controlled what it created. Velcro isnt saying u cant make micro loop/hook technology, but what they are saying is that you damn sure better not call it Velcro.

thats America for you, From Freedom to Fascism.

One reasoning for patenting the moves is in fact to protect the aarrow method from being duplicated. There are in fact companies started from ex-spinners. Spacewalk is an example. Also as a sign spinner I’ve been offered deals to “share” my knowledge of Aarrow. But to some good thinking from Aarrow, I’m not allowed to disclose any information like that legally.

It’s the next big thing and everyone wants to copy it. It only makes sense to protect what you created. Selfish and Greedy? Isn’t that the point of business and marketing? It’s called competition, and patenting what you started gives you a huge advantage. Why wouldn’t you want to do something like that?

As for the opening the flood gates. That’s taking it to an extreme. Just like saying well if gays can get married soon people and animals can get married. It’s just absurd.

Now patenting tricks might seem odd, it’s purpose isn’t to sue everyone who does the trick. If someone directly stole *with given proof* the “group of tricks” then action can be taken. Also if an ex-spinner used his knowledge to create a company or just became and independent spinner, he’d have to wait a certain amount of years before doing so. This isn’t some random bull shit thinking. These steps have been thought out carefully. Unlike most of these comments. This has been reviewed by lawyers, patent makers, and other intelligent individuals. So before you speak your view, do you really think your logic out does theirs?